Into a 250 mL three neck round bottomed flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, nitrogen gas inlet, and drying tube was place 4-nitrophthalonitrile (9.9 g, 0.0572 mol), 2,5-dihydroxyphenyldiphenylphosphine oxide (8.87 g, 0.0286 mol), and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMAc, 100 mL). The mixture was stirred for 15 minutes at room temperature and then pulverized anhydrous potassium carbonate (9.89 g, 0.0715 mol, 2.5 eq.) was added. The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 24 hours. The reddish-brown reaction mixture was poured into ˜700 mL of stirred water and the resulting off-white precipitate was collected and washed with water. The solid was stirred in 100 mL of methanol for 10 minutes and was collected and dried for 2 hours in a vacuum oven at 100° C.
